Jessica Alba: she's the ball of fire who has seduced, outfoxed, and overpowered a litany of criminals, creeps, and sketchballs on her way to becoming the new face of Hollywood heroines. Just don't call her honey

She may have made her mark as a genetically enhanced rogue in James Cameron's cult sci-fi series Dark Angel and as a genetically gifted choreographer-turned-dancer in Honey (2003), but Jessica Alba is more than just a pretty face. This month she stars in one of the year's most ambitious new films, Sin City. Based on the much-vaunted graphic-novel series and co-directed by its creator, Frank Miller, and Robert Rodriguez, the film is composed of three interconnected tales about the citizens of Basin City, a corrupt, crime-ridden, noirish town where a motley crew of underworld characters rule the roost. One man (Mickey Rourke) stalks the murderer of a woman (Jaime King) killed while asleep in his bed; another (Clive Owen) must contend with his clandestine lover (Brittany Murphy) and a randomly violent maniac (Benicio Del Toro); and a policeman (Bruce Willis) with a bad heart becomes embroiled in a relationship with a stripper (Alba) who has fallen in love with him. The movie mimics the look and feel of Miller's comics, using the frames in the original books for reference, and it features some surprising performances from its high-powered ensemble cast. With two more action-packed films on the way, including this summer's superhero bonanza Fantastic Four and the oceanfront crime drama Into the Blue, the 24-year-old Los Angeles-born actress talks to Del Toro about making Sin City and her own way in Hollywood.

BENICIO DEL TORO: So, I don't know much about you, except that we're in this movie together. Tell me, how was it for you, working with the wizard?

JESSICA ALBA: Oh, Robert Rodriguez? [laughs] Incredible. He told me that I actually auditioned for him when I was 14 or 15 for this movie he did called The Faculty [1998]. I do remember going up to him at a premiere. I had my wisdom teeth pulled that day, so I was really messed up on Vicodin and talking real slow. I was like, "Robert, I looove you, you're amaaazing, I neeed to work with you." I think I scared him a little bit. So I jumped at the chance to work with him on Sin City.

BDT: So, you have to do some dancing in the film. Did you practice for that?

JA: Yeah. [laughs] When I got hired I talked to Robert and was like, "Should I talk to some choreographers? I can put together a routine if you give me some music, and that way I can duplicate it." But he was like, "Yeeeah ... No. Did you see Salma Hayek's dance in From Dusk 'Till Dawn [1996]?" And I said, "Yeah, that was the hottest thing I've ever seen in my life!" And he said, "Well, I just put some music on, and she just danced." But I was terrified. I'm not an extrovert. I act because I don't know how to express my feelings--I'm not someone who likes to go onstage and be a star. So, I just went to a bunch of strip clubs to do research. I would have to get a little tipsy, though, because it's kind of intimidating talking to these women with incredible bodies who are writhing in front of you. But I learned some stuff from them. I hit about four strip clubs in L.A., two in New York, and two in Texas.

BDT: [laughs] And aren't you working with, like, a rope or a lasso, too?

JA: Yeah. I had a rope guy teach me how to twist it around like a lasso and stuff. I just spent every night in Texas in the Four Seasons in my underwear, knocking over lamps trying to lasso things.

BDT: Most of your scenes are with Bruce Willis, right?

JA: Yeah. It was amazing because I remember seeing him on Moonlighting and in Planet Hollywood and then in the Die Hard movies. He was this big icon. My scenes with Bruce are all very intimate because my character is madly in love with him. I went out in Austin with Bruce and his boys--he had these two guys with him--and Nick Stahl, who is also in the movie, and his girlfriend. We would find little dives where people were playing live music, and Bruce would always jump onstage and play with the bands. It was like being with a rock star or something.

BDT: Did you get up on the stage with Bruce?

JA: Hell, no! Are you kidding? I had so many anxiety dreams about getting onstage in front of Robert for the movie, much less in a bar in front of strangers.

BDT: How about Austin? What a great place!

JA: Wouldn't you like to shoot every movie there? It's just a real cool town.

BDT: Being with Robert and his wife, Elizabeth, was like seeing the beast from the belly.

JA: isn't it insane, though? Robert has built, like, a miniature movie studio there.

BDT: Yeah, he's the wizard.

JA: Yeah, el jefe. I went to Comic-Con, this big comic-book convention, with Jaime King and Rosario Dawson, who are both in the movie. I didn't really know them that much beforehand. So we're all bonding, and then a teaser of the movie was presented and people were going nuts. But after that I had to go onstage for this movie I've got coming up called Fantastic Four, which is also based on a comic book. Everyone was worried that I was going to get booed off the stage because I'm half Mexican and my character in the comic book is Caucasian. People thought that I was going to have dark skin and dark hair and that it was not going to be right for this movie and blah blah blah. All these people were saying all this shit on the Internet. But I think because everyone was so excited for Sin City, they applauded when I came onstage for Fantastic Four. So, thank you, Robert Rodriguez.